[quote=blackcat]
My point stands: if a diagnosis is made with an appropriate assessment (autism specific interview, ADOS-2 with a research reliable examiner, additional cognitive/language/etc testing, additional reports from school/outside sources other than the parent, etc), the likelihood of that diagnosis changing is slim. Of course, there are always outliers, but they're just that: outliers.
I agree that kids are not diagnosed properly these days, but I don't agree that ADOS can provide diagnostic stability. ADOS consists of different parts and they all sum up to make up a total score. Some of them, like communication can improve dramatically in kids over the years, changing the diagnostic outcome.
My son isn't an outlier. He had three ADOS tests, different modules, same administrator. Two years apart, starting at 2.5yo. He easily qualified for PDD-NOS five years ago, under DSM-IV, based on ADOS, because his language delay and communication part was very high. As his language improved, his ADOS scores and his diagnosability went down, with basically only socialization issues remaining, not being sufficient for a dx on its own (it might have been enough for SCD but not AS). His ADOS was borderline at 4.5 and was below threshold at 6.5.
Not surprisingly, kids whose presentation is consistent with former PDD-NOS (language delay must be present), that are diagnosed before 36 months can "beat" ASD by the age of 8-10, when their verbal issues become undetectable and their social skills improve as a result of communication improvement.
